Page:Armistice Day.djvu/241

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THE FRUITS OF VICTORY
219

ing properly liberty regulated by law. We must expect, therefore, many mistakes in some of the new republics to be set up.

This war, in giving birth to so many new governments without assured stability, increases the chances of international friction. Unless the great powers who have won the war and who are responsible for these nations organize the world to maintain peace among them, war will soon show its grisly head again.

The complexity of the adjustments for which the treaty of peace must provide makes inevitable the continuance of the present league of allied nations and its enlargement. The treaty must provide joint machinery with which to interpret and apply the terms of peace.

It must set up commissions to assess indemnities. It must create tribunals to hear contending peoples as to boundaries, rights of way and rights of access to navigable rivers and the sea.

It must continue its powers of mediation and conciliation long after a treaty has been framed and signed to settle disputes between new-fledged countries and restrain their jealousies and ambitions. They will not be perfect.

Their human frailties will still be present. The great powers must maintain a joint military force to see to it that the terms of the treaty are complied with by the Central Powers.